Several recent events lead to the question: Does the G.hn home networking specification face a steeper hill to climb than it did a year ago in terms of becoming a significant factor in the market? G.hn started out as a telco-backed effort within the telcos’ standards body ITU that would provide the same network technology over all of the home’s existing wires.
In March, IDC published a $5,000 report called “G.hn Faces an Uphill Climb” that “looks at the development of the wired networking protocol G.hn and its position relative to other wired networking protocols for the home, particularly HomePlug and the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA).”
Several recent events may have dampened the rush to G.hn:
– HomePlug’s resolution of its incompatibility with HD-PLC
– The joint statement of marketing cooperation by HomePlug and MoCA
– DS2’s formal request for bankruptcy protection during March
– DirectTV’s recent selection of MoCA for its multi-room DVR.
– France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom, two of the three largest European telcos, have selected HomePlug as their home network standard.
DS2’s financial peril could leave G.hn with only Sigma Designs’ CopperGate as a home network chipmaker with a major vested interest.
It’s true that Intel, through its HomeGrid industry association, is backing G.hn, but Intel is unlikely to make G.hn chips because of their low volume. Besides, Intel is focused in a major way on developing chips for the booming wireless market.
Big companies like telcos, satellite and cable TV operators prefer not to buy from small companies. Broadcom, a major maker of chips, gave MoCA credibility when it said it is making MoCA chips.
One chip maker dropping out of an association doesn’t amount to an avalanche but Texas Instruments’ (TI) resignation from the G.hn standards and marketing association HomeGrid raised questions about G.hn’s viability. However, Texas Instruments has rejoined G.hn and is now a board member. Contacts in the G.hn community provided us with views of G.hn that are contrary to those of their rivals at HomePlug and MoCA. They are not named at their request,
1. The world’s telcos are still very interested in G.hn products. It’s the telcos that initiated G.hn’s development at their joint technology association, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). AT&T, France Telecom, Qwest, Telenor and Verizon signed a request to the ITU that asked for the development of the G.hn standard by the end of 2008 (How optimistic they were!).
The telcos are attracted to these G.hn “next generation” lures:
– Speed up to 1 Gbps.
– Remote management of the home’s network to reduce on-site service calls.
– Quality of service (QoS) guarantees the content provider and its customers “a perfect picture” every time.
– Lower prices.
– Low power requirements.
– Industry standard security based on Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 128 bit.
– Operates over the phone’s copper wires at speeds said to be only 25% less than its speed over coax.
2. Heavily regulated and watched, telcos are as close to being government agencies as possible. They make changes slowly. Security longevity and safety are paramount in their buying decisions.
Telcos want multiple chip vendors so as to have second sources. There are reportedly six to eight companies that have publicly committed to making G.hn chips including Sigma Designs and its CopperGate; Ikanos; Lantiq, which is a little-known $500 million a year spinout from Infineon that has specialized in making DSL chips that are in the broadband products the telcos have been buying; financially-troubled DS2; and Xingtera, a start-up founded specifically to make G.hn chips. Atheros and Broadcom have reportedly said that G.hn chips are on their roadmaps but the reports are unconfirmed.
DS2, an early and vocal G.hn backer, is under bankruptcy and is said to be in negations to be acquired by Broadcom or Marvell.
HomeGrid, G.hn’s promoter and certification association, says there are a record number of chipmakers that have committed to making G.hn chips compared to other home network schemes. That, it said, is the best evidence of the interest in G.hn by home network equipment makers and the telcos they sell to.
AT&T and Telefonica are said to have made positive public statements about G.hn. Of course they and other telcos have every reason to keep an alternative supplier, real or imagined, breathing down the necks of MoCA and HomePlug.
A HomeGrid spokesman said the bandwidth target for G.hn is two to five times as fast as existing home network technology, presumably meaning Home Plug, MoCA and HPNA. The actual numbers vary by the type of wire being used. HomeGrid gave us these numbers for the 1Gbps PHY rate.
>400 Mbps actual throughput targeted over coax.
>200-400 Mbps actual throughput targeted over phone lines (twisted pair of copper wires).
>200 Mbps actual throughput targeted over electrical wiring.
The spokesperson said HomeGrid members have seen performance on early prototypes that exceeds these numbers.
MoCA members are not sitting still. They’re working on their next version, which will be called MoCA 2.0. It’s expected to have:
1. Two performance modes: 700 and 1.4 Gbps PHY rates, which provide 400 and 800 Mbps actual throughputs.
2. Two low power modes, sleep and standby, to reduce power consumption.
3. It’ll address power reduction in the entire network.
4. Backward compatibility to prior versions, 1.0 and 1.1, which MoCA delights in touting against other home network technologies.
G.hn, as defined by its specification, is not backward compatible with any other home network scheme. Chip makers can produce chipsets for G.hn that include other network technologies such as HPNA or HomePlug, but at an added expense and complexity.
One MoCA partisan said that by time G.hn is available “it will be rendered trailing edge and will be compatible with nothing.” Don’t you just love it when they talk dirty?
On the downside, G.hn is about one year behind its original schedule, not surprising when so many chefs have their hand in the concoction:
– The final ratification of G.hn by ITU members is expected in June.
– Sample chips are expected to be available from at least two companies by year’s end.
– Home network gear with G.hn is expected to be on the market in the second quarter of 2011.
Sigma Designs, whose HPNA chips are in the home network gear AT&T is deploying, has committed to offering a single chipset that supports both G.hn and HPNA. The move is obviously intended to help it keep AT&T and the other telcos that are currently buying HPNA gear. It has not said when that would be or what the price would be.
Sigma Designs, as a result of buying Conexant’s HomePlug technology two years ago, is expected to start shipping HomePlug chips within two to three months. It has not said whether it intends to produce a chipset that supports both HomePlug and G.hn. If it did, it would make it easier for the telcos that are now selling HomePlug gear to transition to G.hn products.
Intel legend Andy Grove once chided reporters covering high tech for not having memories that could help put events in perspective. We do.
In May 2008, the then CopperGate, now owned by Sigma Designs, said when it bought Conexant’s HomePlug technology that it intended “to be the leading silicon vendor for G.hn and believes it will be the first company to deliver G.hn chips.”
The potential is there for a “next generation” home network technology that can operate securely at high speeds (remember 3D and medical data are coming to the home) on low-power devices and over all three of a home’s existing wiring systems. Will G.hn be the one to step up and take it? Or will HomePlug and MoCA continue to dominate the market for home networks that the pay-TV services install?
We shall see.